This is the story of my "journey" dealing with cancer, learning how to walk again after losing my hip to the disease and the everyday battles of learning how to cope and live being disabled and a Christian. Follow my STEPS OF FAITH.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Heading Back to Colorado Part 1

Mom and I were on our way out of town now. We headed toward Las Vegas and the MGM Grand for the evening. We had missed lunch, so we pulled of the 215 freeway at Foothill Blvd which is also part of the original route 66. We stopped at the In-n-Out Burger we found and each got a burger and shared french fries. We wanted to make sure that we were able to have dinner when we got to Vegas. We were only going to be there for a short time and had to decide where we were going to eat so we could have a plan in place and get to bed at a reasonable hour. Too bad we weren't going to be there for 2 nights, maybe we could have seen a show. I've never been there to see one of there shows. How fun would that have been?

Mom and I finished eating our burgers and got back on the road fairly quickly. We made it over the Cajon Pass and through the Apple Valley before making it to Barstow. Barstow was the city where you either turned off and headed toward Arizona or kept going toward Las Vegas. Usually we stopped for fuel and a coffee in Barstow no matter if we were coming into California or leaving, and today was no different. Barstow was always extremely windy and hot, which make mom cranky because the wind is so bad there. It is the high desert and wind does happen!

We got back on the I-15 and headed past the turnoff for Arizona. We came to a little truckers town off the interstate called Baker. Baker is known for its larger-than-life digital thermometer seen from the interstate. Near the thermometer is a Bob's Big Boy restaurant. My family went to Bob's for many years as I was growing up. It was a place mom and I went for lunch after church or for an early dinner quite frequently while dad was working. The locations near where I grew up had all closed years before I left California. And, even though I didn't want to ruin my dinner in las Vegas, I got a burger and shared it with mom. It was so good! Just like I had remembered, only smaller. Or, was it that I was bigger? Who knows. I was good either way.

Across the street from Bob's and the thermometer is a Greek food place. If you have watched Triple D (Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives) with Guy Fieri on the Food Network, you may have seen this place featured on one of those episodes. There were a lot of crazy white Greek statues and the blue color from their national flag all over the place. But, we'll talk about that more another time. For now, just know that we got back on the interstate and headed toward Vegas again. We were only a couple of hours away at this point and it was late afternoon.

Not long after mom and I cross the state line into Nevada, we stopped at the Outlets looking for one specific item mom had missed before leaving California. We looked for a couple of stores and couldn't find any other place that we wanted to go into to. But we did find the item that mom was looking for. I was in my transport chair instead of using the walker. We didn't know how much walking I was going to be doing, so it was a good idea to just use the chair. After walking the entire outer part of the Outlets, we decided to keep moving on to Vegas.

We finally made it to our hotel and got ourselves parked in the structure behind the hotel. We got everything we were going to need for the night out of the car and either loaded on top of my transport chair, or mom was carrying it while I followed closely using my walker. We found the check-in counter and mom got us registered. By the time we got to our room, mom and I were really ready for bed and not a night out for dinner. But, we got ourselves ready and found our way to the various hotel restaurants to see what looked the best. We were so tired, neither of us could really decide what we wanted or where to go. We ended up going to one of the restaurants run by the hotel itself called MGM Grand Buffet. Nothing spectacular, we just ordered off the main menu since it was a little later than we had planned to be there. It got us fed and back to the room for the night.

Laying down in the bed that night never felt so good. I slid into the sheets and fell to sleep. Mom and I got up the next morning and slowly made our way to the same restaurant for breakfast. We did our due, went back to the room and packed everything up. We headed back out with me guiding our way through the city to our next destination.

Next..."Heading Back to Colorado Part 2."

Reflection:"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."
Psalm 139:7-10